Leslie Reason obituary

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/oct/28/leslie-reason-obituary

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My father Leslie Reason, who has died aged 92, was a man of many parts and great enthusiasms, and very much a rebel in his younger days. An excellent draughtsman, he worked for the Watford and St Albans Gas Company, which later became part of British Gas.

Leslie was born in Northwood, north-west London. His father, Frederick, was a chauffeur, driving at one time for Lord Bethell, the Liberal MP for Romford, who lived at Bushey House, in Hertfordshire. Leslie spent his teens living in a tied house on Bethell's estate. At the aged of 15 he began training as a draughtsman with a firm of architects in Ruislip, before joining the gas company in 1938.

He was conscripted into the army in 1939 – the Beds and Herts Regiment – but on reaching the age of 21 was released from military service to work in a reserved occupation. His job involved the installation and recording of gas mains in the south-east. He was very fortunate to avoid the fate of his fellows, who mostly finished up on the notorious Burma Railway.

Leslie married Faith in 1946 and together they became vegetarians and joined the Society of Friends – the Quakers. With Faith's unstinting support, Leslie also became involved in local politics and in 1973 was chairman of Rickmansworth urban district council.

Throughout his life, Leslie was a keen cyclist and member of the Cyclists' Touring Club. He visited many parts of the UK by bike, using youth hostels wherever possible. He also raced on a bicycle, tricycle and tandem. On his many travels Leslie took thousands of photographs – of the countryside and, particularly, the railways and canals of the 1950s and 1960s. Many of them have been published.

He retired in 1980 after more thatn four decades in the gas industry. After Faith's death in 1983, Leslie moved to Norfolk, where he became a volunteer with the North Norfolk Railway. He enjoyed exploring the county by bicycle and got much satisfaction from his membership and presidency of the Federation of Cycling Old Timers.

Latterly, Leslie was increasingly immobile, but continued to take an interest in his garden and the people and places around him. He corresponded with many friends, listened to his beloved Elgar, read the Guardian and completed the crossword right up until two weeks before his death.

Leslie is survived by his brother John, two daughters, Heather and me, and two grandchildren, John and Judith.